In Defense of Liberal Arts

Jon Meacham argues a traditional liberal arts education may be the key to producing economic innovation and competitiveness.  The next chapter of the nation's economic life could well be written not only by engineers but by entrepreneurs who, as products of an apparently disparate education, have formed a habit of mind that enables them to connect ideas that might otherwise have gone unconnected.

One important factor involved in the liberal arts is critical thinking. Subject matter in the liberal arts is open to discussion and there are always aspects of it that involve more abstract thinking. In a math course, the ...